Mind over matter in sports: If you don’t mind, it don’t matter

Mind over matter - Trained and conditioned athletes who practice outside can compete in all kinds of weather. They are acclimatized, or so they think, but as every football player has heard from a coach at least once, “Your job is not to think; your job is to just to do your job.” I once heard football coach Paul Johnson (Georgia Southern, Naval Academy, Georgia Tech) say in a press conference, talking about facing hot-weather teams in cold-weather games: “It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” At the Striders 5-Miler July 15, Bill Holdsworth, 56, was 30 yards from the finish line when he started popping like a puppet on tangled strings. I knew he was going down. His face smacked Surf Avenue, a wipeout minus the ocean. Bill kept trying to get up, but his legs wouldn’t support him. Bill wasn’t delirious, more fiercely focused. Bill and I went to the same high school. He’s from a town in Pennsylvania named Croydon; it’s near Bristol. Croydon is a place where everyone’s grandmother can beat you up if you push too hard. Bill was tended to by his wife Lori, a runner herself, who mostly smiled during the 10 minutes it took to get Bill on his feet. Bill refused an ambulance ride. He walked past me and said, “Croydon Tough.” I was the only person who knew what that meant.

Dysfunctional downside - Some people go through life doing the doggie paddle through agitated waters – they are just out there looking to stir it up. They are energized by it. The country is in the throes of dysfunctional downside disorder, and it has crept into sports, a place that doesn’t mirror real life, unless you carry a ball around every minute of every day. I always joked that when a coach said, “Have fun out there,” it presupposed the possibility that you may not. France won the World Cup and right away I heard criticisms of country of origin people saying, “Those players don’t look French to me.” I also read that the culture of travel soccer in the United States is killing the sport, not helping it, as it’s just too exclusive and economically excluding. I recently had my first tariff talk with a friend before a running race. I remember when trade wars involved flipping baseball cards.

I’m down - I’m all about it, just cruising and schmoozing through the sports scene. We’re talking 36 years of being unrelentingly out there, always somewhere. I need to release my grip or risk being “the thing that stayed too long.” Remember when more dogs were off the leash and if you yelled, “Go home,” the dog either turned tail and ran home or crouched and sheltered in place looking for a pat on the head followed by soft words, “Alright, you can stay.” Half the politicians in Washington need to “Go home!” and some coaches also need to go, “Give it up, coach. It’s always been crazy out here.” My brother Tom, who like me has emceed hundreds of sports banquets, said, “I’m a generation and half away from being relevant.”

Snippets - There has never been a more aptly nicknamed athlete than LeSean “Shady” McCoy. And ironically he became the NFL’s best running back because of his elusiveness and not getting hit. Phillies arrived at the all-star break leading the NL East by a half game, but The Temptations are singing “Get Ready” because after going belly-up two games in Miami, they look like a team ready to head south for the summer. Markelle Fultz, the Philadelphia 76ers sophomore coming off a freshman year of the yips, is scheduled to make $8,339,880 in 2018-19 and close to $10 million the two years following. If you made $300,000 a year for the next 25 years that adds up to $7.5 million. I know what you’re thinking: “I want me a case of the yips, too. I ain’t got no jump shot either! Just give me my cash!” During an Eastern Shore Baseball League game July 12 in Georgetown, Clay Conaway of the Georgetown Titans pitched a perfect game in a 2-0 win over the Mizuno Aces. Jake Dmiterchik had the Georgetown hit that chased home the only two runs of the game. Clay, who throws right, has one year of eligibility remaining at the University of Delaware. Ryan Simpler pitched a four-hitter for Mizuno. Go on now, git!